Writing Historical Fiction: The Premise of the Bandit Book
PART TWO IN THE HISTORICAL FICTION SERIES: VARSALONA
At the turn of the nineteenth century, rural Sicily was in chaos. Ruled under martial law for many years, Sicily was subjected to harsh repression by the Italian army that summarily executed thousands of people, imprisoned tens of thousands, destroyed villages, and deported citizens.
The police forces were primarily regarded as worthless or corrupt, and the mafia victimized people to the point that they lived in constant fear with no one to turn to for help. It was in this environment that Francesco Paolo Varsalona (Ciccu Paulu to the Sicilians) rose to power, a fugitive ruling the mountainous areas of Cammarata and Castronovo, a Sicilian Robin Hood who protected his peasant kinsmen while also being one of the most brutal and infamous bandits in Italian history.
This was the time of the Kingdom of Savoy. This wealthy and influential family ruled Northern Italy and eventually the rest of it, controlling and reaping Sicily’s benefits while providing no services to the Sicilian peasants. Wealthy Italian nobility were given large feudal estates in Sicily. Simultaneously, the poverty-stricken Sicilian farmers and peasants were left to guard and manage those estates for pennies if they could obtain the work at all.
The Italian government even enacted a draft requiring Sicilian men to fight in their battles. Furious, a considerable number of Sicilians blatantly ignored the draft and were thrown in prison. Therefore, to be a criminal or arrested during that time in Sicily was not uncommon nor seen as justice; it was seen as another attempt at imperial control to keep the poor peasants from any sort of freedom or happiness.
The police were largely inept and frequently corrupt, and the peasants rarely trusted them enough to assist them. During this time and well known to the police, the mafia, made of Sicilians desperate to find a way to exert control and wealth, stole horses or other property from the feudal estates to drive the cattle hundreds of miles away and sell on the black market. An astute landowner might decide to contact a mafia member under the guise of hiring him to search for his cattle, but both parties knew the real point of the game.
The mafia member would say he “found” the property but that to retrieve it, the landowner must pay off the robbers; the mafia acted as if they were only the middlemen, not the criminals. The landowner, having already paid for the mafia’s services, would now also pay the ransom imposed, knowing full well that it was also going to the mafia.
Many landowners and peasants considered it better to work with the mafia than fight them. Even the wealthy landowners came to realize that the Sicilian authorities were largely incapable of protecting them and were often working in concert with the mafia. Those not involved with the mafia were forced to choose between the lesser of two evils, working with the criminals, or being killed or ruined financially.
The Sicilians were famous for their omerta — lack of complicity with the police because of the dishonor they would receive from their neighbors. Worse than a badge of shame, it was often a death sentence with the unlucky informer finding himself hurled off the top of a mountain into “Vallone Cacuamero” — Shitball Valley — named for those disgusting squealers.
Between the mafia, the corrupt officials, the lack of police protection, and the gangs of fugitives roaming the countryside, the poor Sicilian peasant had little choice but to get involved in the criminal activities. Some farmers who refused to assist the mafia or fugitives suffered the consequences, including destroyed fields, slaughtered cattle, and burned buildings. Meanwhile, those that aided the mafia or criminals often received stolen property and lived within a bubble of protection.
Francesco Paolo Varsalona grew up a Sicilian peasant in the mountains of Sicily before he became a fugitive from justice. He recognized early on that what was needed was someone to fill the gap left from the absence of what should have been the actual government. And so, in the beginning, he merely gave protection to those that provided him food or shelter. But he was very good at it, and word spread not only that Varsalona was acting as a sort of Robin Hood in the countryside, but that with his strength, cunning, and intelligence, he could provide a better solution for the people than any other option.
He won the hearts of the people. He gave them some peace and assurance. Eventually, they would pay him for this service. This would begin the golden age of Varsalona, when he reigned as a monarch in his territory, keeping evil forces at bay by any means possible, but mainly by vicious and horrific acts of violence.
